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Overnight Low glucose after gym - any tips?

R

REM73

Member
Messages
18
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hey there.
New to this thread and hope all you wise heads may have the answers!
Was diagnosed T1 Sep last year. Started going to gym in January this year. Initially experienced lots of hypos while exercising and just after. Have now cracked this, worked out how many carbs and when to eat before gym and this is really helping to steady glucose levels through the day.
Whoop!

I've also started to increase the intensity of what I do at the gym - mix of cardio and strength. All feels exciting and stronger.

However, I do seem to be more susceptible to low glucose and hypos at night.
My assumption is because this is when the body decides to catch up with itself.

Basically any top tips on how to handle this would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!
R
 
What level are you you going to bed at?
 
Diakat said:
What level are you you going to bed at?
Click to expand...

Aha good question!
4.3 last night did think it was a bit low so had 9g carbs but woke up with hypo around midnight (3.1) and had 20g carbs
Woke up in the morning at 4.6

So would it make sense on a similar kind of gym/activity day to top up with a similar carb level before sleep?

night before went to bed glucose was 6 fell to 5 by midnight so had about 4g carbs and was back to 6 when I woke up.

Went to gym both days.
Any thoughts much appreciated!
Thanks.
 
Were your insulin doses the same before you started working out? Depending on the type of activity my doses tend to go down a bit on both basal and fast acting.
 
qe5rt said:
Were your insulin doses the same before you started working out? Depending on the type of activity my doses tend to go down a bit on both basal and fast acting.
Click to expand...

I do tweak the fast acting a little depending on glucose level, what I'm expecting to do at the gym. I was wondering if I need to reduce the long acting a little on gym days too.
As you can probably tell, still quite new at this, so it's great to hear how everyone else works it.
Thank you!
 
I usually make my weekly split so that i can keep my long lasting the same throughout the week. I do high intensity strength exercises on monday, wednesday and friday, HIIT on tuesday and cardio on saterday. My long lasting remains the same throughout the week. I do eat basically the same during the week only off days are saterday and sunday though i still try to have them as close as possible to the rest of the week eating wise. On saterday and sunday i tend to raise fast acting by 1 unit because i'm more sedentary (active job).

Most of my stability comes from the long lasting and i use the fast acting for corrections (and meals). It's a bit of a trial and error and even somewhat season bound. I do go through cutting and bulking cycles which require a different insulin regime. It's a bit of trial and error but the outcome once you get the hang of it is priceless.
 

Brilliant! Thank you so much. Great to hear, am such a newbie at all this but does feel like I'm heading in the right direction.
Going to digest all that and ponder further.
Thanks for the advice, have a great week.
 
My blood glucose drops at night if I've been exercising during the day. Yesterday I ran 8.5km between 9 and 10am, and spent all night on a reduced basal rate, waking up every two hours to test and tweak my pump.

Today's bike ride is just beginning to make itself felt. Time to have a snack and turn the tap down a smidge.......

 
I'd aim for at least 6 for bed after the gym so consider a small snack if lower.

Great suggestions about changing insulin dose too. Eventually you will work out what *your* body does and sort this out.
 
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I am starting to experiment myself with adjusting for exercise, however if you do make changes I have been told to not make any adjustment more than 10%. this allows a degree of flexibility and adjustment.
 
Have you checked out www.runsweet.com? This has some great tips for managing diabetes when exercising.
As for the low night time BG, I understand this is common after exercise. I was advised to reduce my basal after exercise to up to 25% for 24 to 48 hours. I know this is a bit vague but there are so many variables including the way your body works, how intense your exercise is, whether you exercised yesterday, ...
I used to reduce my basal by 20% the night after exercising and 10% the next night (unless I exercised again). I say "Used to" because I now have a pump. This allows me to reduce and increase my basal when I want/need and has helped (I increased my weights by 25% within 2 months of starting on the pump). I was extremely lucky that my diabetes nurse recommended the pump based on "reducing hypos relating to exercise" rather than the usual "bad control" justification.
 
Thank you all. With nurse's support have reduced my basal which seems to be doing the trick. Onwards! Now if I can just sort out the vertigo inducing waterfall visualisation on the treadmill I'll be completely sorted....
 
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